Barely half of the estimated 26,000 charities in Scotland have met
a deadline to send their accounts to the nation's new charity
regulator.

Only 13,345 had sent their details to the Office of the Scottish Charity
Regulator by the requested date of 30 June. The OSCR is charged with
creating an accurate register of charities in Scotland - 26,000
organisations were contacted at the end of April using the HM Revenue &
Customs' index of charities.

Those with an annual income greater than £25,000 were asked to
submit their latest set of accounts - others had to give their contact
details and other information such as gross income.

But a spokeswoman for the OSCR said the regulator was not unduly
concerned about many charities apparently missing the deadline.

"This is the first time people have been asked to send in accounts," she
said. "Although we have passed the deadline, we would still be happy to
receive them. The OSCR has not yet been formally created, so there is
still plenty of time."

She said there was no actual cut-off point for charities to send in
their details, but added that the regulator would be issuing a follow-up
mailing in two weeks to encourage the stragglers.

As of 6 July, 14,056 charities had replied and a further 2,000
incorrectly completed forms had been received. The OSCR said its own
estimate of the number of Scottish charities was 18,000, claiming it was
therefore close to "creating as accurate a list as has ever
existed".

But Leon Thompson, communications manager of umbrella group the SCVO,
criticised what he called a "half-hearted attempt to gather
information".

"We need to get a definitive statistic," he said. "The OSCR is the
regulator and it must know who it is regulating."

But he added that the low response to OSCR's summons was "not hugely
surprising", given that the HMRC index was old and that many charities
would have moved or been wound up.

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